like, you are fired, get out of here! i like, you are fired, get out of here! you _ i like, you are fired, get out of here! you are _ i like, you are fired, get out of here! you are fired! -- i of here! you are fired! —— kamala, you are fired! donald trump targets kamala harris in his first major rally sincejoe biden stepped away from the campaign. as the eu tighten economic pressure on the kremlin, we will bring you a special report as we travel with a ukrainian unit on the front line of the battle. that's outgoing fire. so along these front lines, the ukrainians have gained about 500 metres of territory from the russians. it's not a lot and it's been hard fought over. and prince harry says phone hacking legal battles was a key factor in the breakdown of relations between him and other members of the royalfamily.

hello and welcome to the programme. our top story, developing out of the us. presidentjoe biden is preparing to speak to the american people in an hour's time. it will be a defining political moment, as he explains why he dropped out of the presidential race and how he plans to govern over the next six months. we'll bring you mr biden�*s speech live here on bbc news at 8pm eastern time. of course, the focus will be on what president biden will have to say and, like i said, how he plans to govern over the next few months. let's talk a little more about what might be expected. live to our correspondent in washington, will grant. thanks very much for coming up for us here on newsday. so what are really going to be the expectations from president biden�*s address? i expectations from president

biden's address?— expectations from president biden's address? i think people are auoin biden's address? i think people are going to _ biden's address? i think people are going to want _ biden's address? i think people are going to want to _ biden's address? i think people are going to want to hear, - biden's address? i think people are going to want to hear, the i are going to want to hear, the thinking behind it, aren't they? it was such a momentous decision, a sitting president has not taken a decision like this in more than half a century, and we do not have a few excerpts of what's going to be in that speech. —— do now have. we are ready hear him, we believe, say, i believe the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. of course those like kamala harris will be that next generation, but that is the way he's framing it, that he is passing the torch. there was great pressure on him to listen to other members of his party, that pressure grew that he should pass the torch, as they were saying it, a lot of senators and congress people at the time the stubby said, over the time the stubby said, over the next six months, or he will say, i should say, he will be focused on doing hisjob as president that means intending to lower costs for hard—working families and grow the economy. it is interesting as well, because there's been a lot of speculation and a lot of

pushing by the republicans for him to actually step down as president. he's making it abundantly clear he has no intention of doing that between now and election day, and then passing on to whoever succeeds him. 50 passing on to whoever succeeds him. ,, ., , passing on to whoever succeeds him. , ., , him. so the next six months reall , him. so the next six months really. it _ him. so the next six months really, it would _ him. so the next six months really, it would be _ him. so the next six months. really, it would be interesting to see what that is like, it look like, given the pressures president biden has faced? so it is that likely to look like in the next six months or so? it's a difficult one, isn't it? because in essence, all focus now, all political focus, because in essence, all focus now, all politicalfocus, on national focus, now, all politicalfocus, on nationalfocus, will now, all politicalfocus, on national focus, will be on this potential race and it is difficult hand to be a lame duck president. others have that for much longer periods than he will be experience but it is still six months, so it comes with it that difficulty of getting things through congress that you would like to get through, all mines turning to november's vote, and then from there the following administration, whoever wins. so, he has talked, the xers of his speeches that he intends to continue defending our personal

freedoms and civil rights from the right to vote to the right to choose, references there to the question on roe versus wade and a woman's right to choose over her body and the abortion—rights in the united states. i suspect that will be an important part of the election too, won't it? those two things will be running in conjunction. it will peaceably his agenda, it will also be what benefits his candidate, kamala harris. we what benefits his candidate, kamala harris.— what benefits his candidate, kamala harris. we will leave it there, kamala harris. we will leave it there. will— kamala harris. we will leave it there, will grant, _ kamala harris. we will leave it there, will grant, thank- kamala harris. we will leave it there, will grant, thank you i there, will grant, thank you very much for getting us up to date on a story that we are very closely watching, presidentjoe biden expected to address the american people and just about an hour's time, so do stay with bbc news for continuing coverage on that. staying with events in the united states — israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu addressed congress and said america and israel must stand together if they are to defeat what he called the forces of barbarism. he is looking to boost

support for the war against hamas in gaza. president biden remains "optimistic" about a peace deal in gaza — despite israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu vowing to "finish the job". but thousands of demonstrators gathered outside the capitol to protest about the war, and dozens of democratic members of congress refused to attend his speech. an american flag was burned and statues outside of union station were defaced. police confirmed five people were arrested so far. from washington, tom bateman reports, a short walk back into the american limelight, after months of fraught ties between the us leadership and the israeli prime minister. here, among friends, many republicans — but some notable absences from joe biden�*s democrats — benjamin netanyahu started by thanking the president. he rightly called hamas "sheer evil".

he dispatched two aircraft carriers to the middle east to deter a wider war. and he came to israel to stand with us during our darkest hour, a visit that will never be forgotten. applause he quickly turned to the issue of hostages still held by hamas, with families and one of those freed watching, trying to point to his accomplishments. israel has already brought home 135 of these hostages, including seven who were freed in daring rescue operations. applause chanting: not another dime! not another nickel, not another dime! i outside, the protesters came in their thousands, headed to the heart of us democracy, or as close as they could get. anger has raged over the huge numbers of civilians killed in gaza. it's shameful that he's been invited to speak before congress. it's shameful what

our government has been allowing to happen, and aiding, and funding. you can see how the pressure has been building on benjamin netanyahu, and then there are his critics at home, some of whom have accused him of not gripping a ceasefire deal hard enough, because of his own political problems. and so, arriving here at the us capitol, for him, is the big prize, as he tries to face off his opponents. the israeli leader castigated the demonstrators. but there was more to come inside the chamber. a silent protest from rashida tlaib, the first palestinian american woman to serve here. roughly half the elected democrats in congress are believed to have stayed away. the vice president kamala harris also absent, her office said due to a schedule clash. mr netanyahu addressed the move by the prosecutor of the international criminal court, who is seeking an arrest warrant against him. the icc is trying to shackle israel's hands and prevent us from defending ourselves.

deafening praise in congress, but there may be less behind closed doors tomorrow, as mr netanyahu meets president biden, an alliance backed by arms but blighted by the fraught politics between its leaders. tom bateman, bbc news, washington. i spoke to charles freilich, associate professor of political science at columbia university and former deputy national security adviser in israel. he told me despite the pro—gaza demonstations outside congress and the fact that several lawmakers skipped his address, mr netanyahu will be satisfied with his visit. i thought the speech was an extraordinarily good one. he's long been known for his rhetorical capabilities, and i think today he rose to even higher heights than in the past. he was certainly received overwhelmingly favourably by those present.

and, of course, it was marred by, i don't know that it was half, as your correspondent was saying, but a significant number of democrats who were missing. that's certainly a problem. but as an address to congress, i think he achieved his primary objective, which was really directed mostly towards his home audience here in israel, which was to show that he is a leader who has been invited to what is arguably the most prestigious platform in the world and is widely cheered by those there. netanyahu's standing in israel has absolutely plummeted in the last year, starting with the so—called judicial overhaul and especially since the war broke out. and nothing that he's done until now has changed that. and in some ways, i think he may have been looking at this address to congress as a last opportunity to save his cratering

political fortunes. and how much of a worry would that be, rhe fact that dozens of lawmakers, as we've been saying, chose to skip the speech? in fact, another point i'd like to communicate — that kamala harris wasn't present either due to a prior commitment. but she will be meeting netanyahu on thursday. but is her absence notable, do you think? well, it's certainly notable, because one would expect the vice president, who is the president of the senate, to be there. there are some who are interpreting her absence as a snub, but she is meeting him with tomorrow, and she's in the midst tomorrow, and she's in the midst ofa campaign, so i wouldn't attach too much importance to it. the fact that there are a significant number of democrats who chose not to attend is certainly a problem. it demonstrates the tensions in us—israeli relations. one of the sources of the extraordinarily close

relationship between the us and israel has always been that it was a bipartisan one. and it's become increasingly tilted towards the republicans in recent years. and actually, if netanyahu came for his political reasons, the other reason for the visit at this time was that the republicans wanted to try to use it to drive a wedge between the democrats and israel. politically speaking, kamala harris faces pressure from the progressive wing of the democratic party on the israel—gaza war. do you expect on the campaign trail or as president, she would take a different approach to what we've seen joe biden take so far? how is netanyahu going to be looking at that? well, i think she will probably take a somewhat more critical position on the humanitarian issues regarding gaza. she already has. she was the strongest critic within the administration till now.

she may have been asked to play the role of the bad cop to biden�*s good cop, but the language that she used was certainly unusually critical. i don't expect fundamental differences from biden�*s approach. she is also quite pro—israeli. she has repeatedly emphasised israel's right to defend itself, and to defeat hamas, but there will be a certain... there will be a difference in at least the tenor on those issues. on the other issues, iran, for example, hezbollah, we haven't heard harris stake out a position at all, frankly. so it's unclear. but she is really a centrist democrat. yes, she has good relations with the progressive wing, but she herself has always been a centrist, so i don't expect

big changes in that regard. meanwhile, donald trump is holding his first rally since presidentjoe biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race. addressing supporters in north carolina, he launched personal attacks on both president biden, as well as vice president kamala harris. take a listen. as you know, three days ago, we officially defeated the worst president in the history of our country, crooked joe biden. he quit because he was losing so badly in the polls, he was down in every single poll and down by a lot, so he quit. so now we have a new victim to defeat, lyin�* kamala harris, lyin�* — l—y—i—n' — the most incompetent and far left vice president in american history.

let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines. coast guards says at least 25 people are known to have died and dozens more are missing after a boat capsized off the mauritanian coast on monday. the vessel was heading for the canary islands along a route used by migrants. mauritanian coast guards managed to rescue about 120 people. typhoon gaemi has made a landfall in northeastern taiwan. it's the strongest storm to hit the island in eight years. officials say two people have been killed and hundreds more injured. the authorities in mainland china have issued a red alert for parts of the southeastern coast threatened by the storm. crowd trouble forced the first football match of the olympic games in paris to be delayed by almost two hours. morocco secured a 2—1 win over argentina, after all the spectators had been removed from the stadium. the match was originally thought to have ended as

a 2—2 draw, but the late goal was ruled out by var. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.

you are live with bbc news. the international community in the west remain united, for now, on the plight of ukraine. finance ministers from across europe have called for the tightening of economic screws against the kremlin, they say to prevent the possibility of future attacks on the west. on the frontline, there appears to be stalemate, with russia making very limited gains in small pockets in the east. drones have changed the way war is fought. quentin sommerville and camera journalist darrin conway have been with one ukrainian drone unit on the front. russia's invasion has cast ukraine into darkness.

a new deadly threat from above has thrown its people deep into war�*s bleak future. hidden in underground command centres in kharkiv, the national guard's drone teams battle day and night to keep the threat at bay. an fp drone can take ikg or 2kg bomb that hits it directly to the enemy shelter, enemy infantry and enemy armoured vehicle. they are cheap and devastatingly precise. here, aeneas's team hunts a russian soldier. there is no way to be alive, after fp drone hitting. and another threat — glide bombs, fitted with guidance systems, allow russian aircraft to attack from beyond the battlefield, literally gliding onto their target. they are turning

lyptsi to dust. with drone jamming equipment on their vehicle, aeneas takes us to lyptsi for a closer look. aeneas, we're going very fast. why is that? is it because it's safer? because of the drones. because of the drones? because of drones, yes. it's dangerous here? there is a lot of russian fp drones. a lot of russian fpv drones? a lot of them. that's why we're using now ourjamming system. but it doesn't stop all drones. and once out in the open, they're exposed. ten metres between us. yeah? so we have to move fast. this is what drones and glide bombs have done to lyptsi. crossing open ground can be deadly. getting to shelter, moving deep underground, is the only protection against these weapons.

what kind of mission is this today? is it surveillance? is it attack? no, it's attacking on probable positions of the russian army in the forest. command centre. yeah. drone after drone is sent forward to attack. we should go to the safe place. go, go, go, go, go. go, go, go, go, go! we watch in real time. they have a russian vehicle in their sights. every day, about 100 enemy die because of these drones, only in ourfront line. this is a battlefield, a war, being transformed by technology. automated female voice: detection, one drone. multiple pilots. high signal strength. unseen, but identified above, a russian drone. it's time to head for cover. so that's outgoing fire.

so, along these front lines, the ukrainians have gained about 500m of territory from the russians. it's not a lot, and it's been hard fought over. the company commander here says that when it comes to drone warfare, the ukrainians have the advantage. but as far as glide bombs are concerned, well, russia has a serious upper hand. but now we can hear the drone directly above us. everyone freezes. it's looking for any kind of movement before it strikes. eventually, we get the all clear. so that drone we heard has passed overhead, so we need to get out of here fast. drones were barely a factor in this war a year ago. now they are everywhere, always. automated female voice: detection, multiple drones.

multiple pilots. high signal strength. any journey overground is nerve—racking, a game of chance. but here, even closer to the front, russian glide bombs are a greater threat. ten kilograms bomb. russian calls it "boogeyman drone". the boogeyman is big enough to take out an armoured vehicle or a command post. it has to be launched fast, before the russians find their position. drones whir they fly manually, while keeping watch for russian glide bombardments. and soon they come. this is a glider bomb. you can see it in the camera. it's on the battlefield now. they are hitting the trenches with soldiers. now we can hear the sound.

explosion i felt that. the window shook. what happens if russian glide bombs strike this area? hmm, i think we will die. ok, let's go. and now russia responds with drones too. fast, fast, fast, fast, fast! should move fast, because drone is coming back. on ukraine's battlefield, the rules of war are being rewritten. and here they say all wars will soon be fought this way. go, go, go. quentin sommerville, bbc news, lyptsi, northeastern ukraine. you can get more on that story on the bbc news website. prince harry has revealed that his legal battle with british tabloid newspapers over allegations of phone hacking was "central" to the breakdown in relations between him and other members of the royalfamily. he's always claimed that senior royals and their lawyers didn't want to sue, preferring to settle out of court. prince harry won a legal case against mirror group newspapers last year —

in an interview he's given to itv, he's called that a "monumental victory" but said it would have been nice if they'd done it as a family. tom symonds reports. when prince harry caught the media by surprise, turning up at court in person to fight a newspaper over phone hacking allegations, it was a statement of intent. i don't think there's anybody else in the world that is better suited to be able to see this through than myself. i'm trying to get justice for everybody. now, in an itv documentary, he's made it clear he sees himself as the man for the job. last year, a judge concluded mirror group newspapers knew there had been extensive phone hacking to dig up these stories about the duke of sussex. this went right up to the top. this was lawyers. this was high executives. and to be able to achieve that in a trial, that's a monumental victory. but harry went to court alone.

he's claimed "the institution", as he's called the royal family, didn't want to sue. they wanted to settle out of court — a secret agreement between the palace and the papers, he called it — though a judge said the evidence for that was limited. but the relationship between harry and his family went downhill. to what extent do you think that your determination to fight the tabloids destroyed the relationship with your family? i think there's... yeah, that's certainly a central piece to it. i made it very clear that this is something that needs to be done. it would be nice if we, you know, did it as a family. i believe that, again, from a service standpoint, and when you're in a public role, these are the things that we should be doing for the greater good. but, you know, i'm doing this... i'm doing this for my reasons. reasons which he says include his mother's treatment by the media. he doesn't seem to need the backing of the royalfamily.

he has his own seasoned legal team working no win, no fee, and there will be many more cases against more newspapers in a battle which could go on for years. tom symonds, bbc news. that's all we have at the moment. don't forget — president biden will speak to the american prople in about 30 minutes. we will start our special coverage injust a we will start our special coverage in just a few minutes from washington, dc, so do stay tuned to bbc news. hello. we've got a fairly humid and moist air mass with us at the moment. that's bringing quite a lot of low cloud, some mist and some murk around as we start thursday. generally through the day, it's going to continue to feel fairly humid — some spells of sunshine, but also a chance of some rain for some of us. now, across southern counties of england, you can see a bit of rain likely here, particularly through the morning hours in the south—west, probably going to push into

the south—east of england by the afternoon. some of that could be quite heavy. a few scattered showers further north, particularly so for northern ireland and for scotland too, especially in the north and the west. but in between these two areas, quite a lot of dry weather. in the sunnier spells, temperatures up to about 2k degrees, but i think most of us, we're looking at about 16 to 22. now, into thursday evening, some more spells of rain moving through the english channel, affecting southern counties of england for a time. some scattered showers continue to move in from the north. but the cloud moves away towards the south—east, so still a reasonably humid night across parts of east anglia and the south—east — 15 degrees or so. but most of us, a cooler, fresher feel to friday morning, and that fresher air will continue to roll in on a westerly breeze behind this weather front on friday, so a real change in the feel to the weather. with that fresher air comes more sunshine on friday. still a few showers here and there, particularly so for northern ireland and for scotland, but there could be one or two elsewhere across england and wales.

dry and bright for many, though, especially towards the south. in the east, top temperatures up to about 2k degrees in the warmest spots, most of us typically 18 to 22 on friday. rolling into saturday, still a lot of dry weather, but you can see a few showers moving in from the west, potentially affecting northern ireland, scotland, western parts of england and wales. down towards the south—east, you're more likely to avoid any of those showers. higher pressure holding on here and temperatures again between about 16 to 22 degrees. but this big area of high pressure builds in and sticks with us as we head through sunday and into the first part of next week at least, wwather fronts trying to move weather fronts trying to move in from the atlantic but bumping into high pressure. so sunday, i think dry really across the board. light winds, long spells of sunshine for all of us and it's going to feel that little bit warmer. so we'll start to see temperatures up at around about 25 for the warmest spots, but quite widely high teens and low 20s. outlook for next week — a lot of dry, settled weather. perhaps a little bit of rain at times later in the week, particularly in the north and north—west, but it's likely to be turning warmer, especially in the south and south—east. bye— bye.

hello, i'm sumi somaskanda. welcome to our special coverage of presidentjoe biden�*s first public address since exiting the us presidential race. we're moments away from president biden delivering an oval office address to the nation — his first public remarks since announcing his exit from the 2024 presidential race and endorsing

his vice president, kamala harris, to replace him as the democratic party's nominee. mr biden is expected to give a defence of democracy, discuss what he hopes to accomplish in the remaining six months of his term in office, and why he ultimately chose to back out of the race with a little more than 100 days until the us general election in november. in an excerpt of the speech released by the white house, the president will say, "i have decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. that is the best way to unite our nation." mr biden is the first sitting president to not seek a second term in office since lyndonjohnson stepped out of the race during the vietnam war in 1968. ms harris was back on the campaign trail on wednesday in indianapolis, addressing black women voters in a speech that barely mentioned her republican rival donald trump by name. mr trump spoke in north carolina in the last few hours in his first campaign rally since mr biden dropped out, and sharpened his attacks against the vice president. as the race to the white house heats up, new polling from cnn